Walker denies plan to lure Dems back

CHICAGO — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Wednesday denied committing any wrongdoing when he told a blogger posing as a billionaire contributor that he was trying to lure his Democratic opponents into coming back to Madison.

Walker had taken a 20-minute prank call from a blogger posing as “David Koch,” one of two conservative activist brothers who contributed to Walker’s campaign contributors and allegedly have been funding the counterprotests in Madison. In the call, Walker revealed an apparent plan he had to bring Democrats back to the Capitol in order to establish a quorum in the Senate to hold a vote on his budget measure, which would strip collective bargaining rights from state employee unions.

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“I take phone calls all the time,” Walker said in an afternoon news conference. “The bottom line is the things I’ve said are the things I’ve said publicly all along. … It’s not a trick, we’ve said it point-blank, come on in and talk about it … [but] ultimately it needs to lead to a vote.”

Walker added that he can’t allow “one prank phone call to be a distraction from the reality,” before he again urged 14 Senate Democrats who had fled the state to return to Wisconsin.

On the call, Walker is heard saying: “If they’re actually in session for that day, and they take a recess, the 19 Senate Republicans could then go into action and they’d have a quorum because it’s turned out that way. So we’re double-checking that. If you heard I was going to talk to them that’s the only reason why. We’d only do it if they came back to the Capitol with all 14 of them.”

He adds: “My sense is, hell. I’ll talk. If they want to yell at me for an hour, I’m used to that. I can deal with that. But I’m not negotiating.”

Earlier Wednesday, Walker’s representative confirmed the recording was legitimate. Meanwhile, Democrats in Illinois don’t seem ready to move. Their only leverage at this point seems to be to stay away, and they’re doing just that.

After the news broke of Walker’s “plan,” Senate Democratic leader Mark Miller responded on a national press call run by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee that the recordings raised questions about Walker’s character and certainly would not inspire Democrats to cross state lines.

“I’ve heard rumors of it. Maybe it reveals something about the governor’s character. The possibility of us having to be dragged back to the Capitol before this bill has had enough public scrutiny has always been a possibility, and that’s why we left the state in the first place,” Miller said. “Employees have given him a victory, they’ve given him the money he needs. … The ball is in the governor’s court.”